Saturday, January 04, 2020

Yesterday was the first Friday of 2020 and there was no "Friday News And Views" post. Maybe you missed that? I am thinking many of you do, as the "FN&V" posts are often my highest read posts in terms of views based upon my stat counter. It's obvious that many readers of the blog tend to look for that.

So, I thought it might be fun to look into where that came from, because I didn't always do those posts. The "FN&V" is a fixture of the blog these days, but when did that start? I didn't know, or couldn't remember, so I started doing a bit of research.

I noticed that over the years that I had been doing the "Minus Ten Review" that "FN&V" posts weren't happening on any regular basis, and in fact, I just would post a "News And Views" post any ol' day I felt like it, apparently. There were "News And Views" posts on every day of the work week, Monday through Friday, just randomly, for several years on the blog. My favored day for a while was Wednesday, as I had come across many a "Wednesday News And Views" post, but in one instance that I am aware of, I did a "News And Views" post three days in a row!

I noted during my research that a "FN&V" post started becoming more of a thing in 2010, but I was still doing Wednesdays, Thursdays, or nothing at all, randomly, all that year. This seemed to persist through the beginning of 2011, but along about July of that year I seem to have settled upon doing the "FN&V" and it has been that way ever since, as far as I could see.

The whole "Friday News And Views" post thing really started taking off, as far as stats, a few years ago now. It is by far the busiest day, or at least the most viewed post, of any week here. Only "hot button" issues seem to garner bigger numbers, like the just concluded series, or when I announced I was leaving my old job, and only then do I see numbers that surpass an "FN&V" post. The seasonal "views" posts, (Spring Views, Country Views, Winter Views, etc), get some bigger numbers, but generally "FN&V" surpasses even those.

So, if you wonder why I keep doing those "Friday News And Views" posts, or if you wonder if I had maybe forgotten this week, or stopped them altogether, well, now you know. I'm not going to quit doing the most popular thing on the blog.

2 comments:

Hi GT, great to hear on FN&V - I'd wondered (worried) that there wasn't one yesterday for a reason. I love those posts and really look forward to them, especially when something's launched that stirs my opinion and then I get to read your insightful take contextualizing it for all of us. Even if I get behind on reading, I go back and catch up on those. So - thank you kindly for the generous past posts, and especially for the upcoming future one. Happy New Year to you, hoping you have a great 2020. -Will